New Learners for the New Economy
By Kirsten Olson,
Author of Wounded by School: Recapturing the Joy in Learning and
Standing Up to Old School Culture

While things are looking a little
brighter, the economy still seems to be in a bit of free fall.
(Except if you're at Goldman Sachs.)

If you aren't looking for work
yourself, you know someone who is searching for a job, who just
graduated, or is tuning up their skills so they don't get
permanently furloughed or downsized. What qualities do you need as
a learner to adapt to our new economy? What learning
attributes do employers seek in the flatter, fragmented, and
constantly changing workplace? Based on a book I just wrote, it's
clear many of the ways we were taught to be learners in school
are directly in contrast to the qualities we need in today's
economy and job market.

Below are twelve critical "habitudes"
of learners in the new economy. These habits and attitudes are
critical to adapting to our new information-overload economy,
thriving amidst constant change, and allowing you to enjoy your work
more. Moving out of the old ruts of learning -- that it is boring,
and that someone else is in charge -- will help you grow personally,
expand your skills much more rapidly, and allow you to experience
greater pleasure in your work. And seeing what you do as pleasure is
perhaps your greatest asset you can bring to any potential employer.

New learners for the new economy . . .

Are highly
adaptive. They are able to see where opportunity lies and network
to it. Perhaps you were hired for program development, but that market
is withering. As a new learner, you are strategically attuned to the
signals your sector offers, and are able grow your skills and
experiences toward new opportunities. Where is opportunity right now in
your sector? Where will it be in a year? If you a job seeker, in
interviews be ready to talk in about how you adapted to workplace or
educational change, and provide examples. Then, when you get that job, be
that adaptive person you described.

Ask great
questions. Powerful learners ask lots of questions. After that,
they pause, and listen carefully and deeply to answers.

Are
curious about everything. Folks who do not take advantage of new
ways to understand their businesses or their work, through blogs,
online newspapers, newsfeeds, wikis, Googlereaders, are missing
important opportunities. Great learners are very self propelled and
entrepreneurial about their learning, and have lots of "learning
projects" going all the time. Read avidly about your business or market
sector. In fact, read avidly. As much as you can, whenever you can.

Have a
broad knowledge base that they are always expanding. (See above.)
Although many of us are pushed to specialize in our jobs, new learners
for the new economy are also broad thinkers. They have interest in lots
of different knowledge domains.

Are good
at seeing patterns. As you sort through mountains of information
available all the time, what patterns do you see? What sources are
reliable? Why? And how can you synthesize? One of your most valuable
attributes as a new learner is your ability to "see" the underlying
patterns in information, workflows, organizational crises, and
synthesize. Look for ways you can organize and see patterns in
information.

Are team
players who share what they know willingly and generously. New
learners for the new economy lead horizontally, through influence, not
competitive moves, backstabbing, or out maneuvering others. As a
learner this means not hoarding what you know, but offering up
knowledge to others and collaborating around tough problems. You really
are a better learner and thinker when you work with others, and your
own influence only grows through right-spirited cooperation.

Are a
glass-half-full resource managers. The New York Times
recently reported that the University of Washington's department of
communications decided eliminate landline telephones. "We found a way
of saving money that doesn't hurt the student experience, and I think
everybody's happy," said the communications department chair.
Landlines, the department concluded, were an old fashioned technology
that weren't needed anymore. Can you
figure out how to survive -- and thrive -- on less? We are on the
forefront of a massive shift in American life, where we consume less,
own fewer things, and do more for ourselves. New learners for the new
economy consume less, and manage resources very carefully, not just
because it saves money, but because it is the right thing to do.

Understand
that every contact matters. Great learners are tutored by everyone.
From the man you give a dollar to on the street on the way to work, to
the president of the company whom you meet in the elevator, every time
you interact with another human being you are learning. Every encounter
is a learning moment. You embrace this.

Know that
hierarchy doesn't matter. The old command and control ways of
managing the world are being disrupted and disordered, even as this
upsets folks who love hierarchy and the old rules. The new reality is
influence comes from everywhere, and success and profitability can be
found from virtually ANY position. Like #8 above, new learners for the
new economy believe this and live it in their actions at work. If you
answer phones, are you putting every bit of yourself into it? Are you
learning all you can from every phone interaction? Every position
matters; everything you do matters.

Are
choiceful about how they socialize. Where are you linked in? How
do you spend your time? Who influences what you think? Great
learner-employees are choiceful about their social contacts and habits,
because they know this affects their learning. Take your influences
seriously.

Own
mistakesand are error alchemists. New research tells us we
actually learn more from our mistakes than our successes. Successful
new learners are good at owning their mistakes, admitting errors, and
fluent at figuring out what valuable lessons they contain. No matter
how painful, practice seeing your screw ups as opportunities. Turn lead
into gold.

See
learning as pleasure. It is! There is almost nothing more exciting
than the adventure of a new learning project. Live this adventure. This
alone will make you a vital, energetic, standout employee.

Finally, here's
the great thing. Probably almost everything you've been doing
since you were a kid, playing online games, IMing, Facebooking, and
Tweeting will help you be the employee you need to be. Enthusiastic,
engaged, cooperative, self-propelled learners are now
more than ever highly valued employees. They are the new learners we
need. Enjoy.

Author BioKirsten Olson, author of Wounded
by School: Recapturing the Joy in Learning and
Standing Up to Old School Culture, is a writer, educational
consultant, and
national-level Courage To Teach facilitator, and principal of Old Sow
Consulting. She has been a consultant to the Bill and Melinda Gates
Foundation, the Kennedy School at Harvard University, and many large
public school systems and charter schools.